forms of manipulation. In his Pictorial mode,
Stieglitz concentrated on motifs such as rain or
snow (Winter Fifth Avenue, 1893;The Terminal,
1893), claiming that the photographer’s personal
view must prevail over technical matters.
Between 1902 and 1907, Stieglitz radically altered
his photographic style. He focused on New York as
a changing urban landscape, as shown in the pictures
The City of Ambitionof 1902 andOld and New New
Yorkof 1910. When Stieglitz aimed his camera at
subjects at the time deemed marginal both in terms
of the pictorialist aesthetic (which tended to focus on
domestic and middle-class subjects) and by those of
cultured taste, he proved himself a brilliant innova-
tor. The best-known example of this period of his
work is without a doubtThe Steerageof 1907. This
photograph of the poorest of immigrants arriving in
New York Harbor aboard a great ship reveals a
meticulous sense of geometry and framing. He rea-
lized a series of pictures shot at night that relate the
surroundings and the buildings in the neighborhood
of the 291 gallery (Snapshot from my Window,New
York, 1902), and increasingly turned to a new
approach, which came to be called Straight Pho-
tography. This direction is confirmed by his recogni-
tion of Paul Strand. Stieglitz’s move into this more
modern photographic realm perhaps was sealed by
his exhibition of Marcel Duchamp’s famous ‘‘Foun-
tain’’—a standard urinal—rejected in a cause du
celebre from the now-legendary 1917 Armory
Show, in Gallery 291, and his photographing of it
at Duchamp’s request. With theFountain de Marcel
Duchampof 1917, Stieglitz created a sensual, highly
abstract photograph that conferred upon this com-
mon object status as a work of art.
It was also in 1917 that Stieglitz met the painter
Georgia O’Keeffe, who was to become his model and
wife. Their intense emotional relationship is evident
in his many pictures of her. In nudes, portraits, and
studies of her graceful hands (Georgia O’Keeffe,
Handsof 1918) Stieglitz captured the vitality of Mod-
ernism. InGeorgia O’Keeffe, A Portraitof 1933 her
hand and willowy forearm seem to be a part of the
curvature of the tire of a car, setting up a subtle game
of correspondences between the mechanical and
human being. Stieglitz’s pictures of O’Keeffe, made
between 1917 and 1933, can also be read as an echo
of her paintings and drawings. In many of these
works, he uses the semi-close-up and the close-up,
establishing a metaphor for three distinct levels of
reading: on the fragment of body and the whole
body, on the use of fragmentation as a photographic
practice, and on the artworks of his painter-model.
In 1922, Stieglitz began work on what was to
become one of the most conceptually influential
series of photographs of the twentieth century. He
began concentrating on a more poetical photogra-
phy while adopting a sole topic: the sky. He called
his first seriesMusic: A Sequence of Ten Clouds Pho-
tographs.Subsequent pictures were regrouped under
the titleSongs of the Sky. From 1923, he framed
cloud formations, deleting all landscape features
that might orient the viewer, creating photographic
variations upon the theme and giving birth to the
seriesEquivalents.
With the closing of the 291 Gallery and the final
issue of magazineCamera Workin 1917, Stieglitz
retired from organizing exhibitions for four years.
Yet his passion for modern art saw him mounting
exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries from 1921 to
1925, the Intimate Gallery between 1925 and 1929,
then An American Place from 1929 to his death.
This space for the most part did not show pho-
tography; rather, it served as the showcase of the
‘‘Six plus X’’ group composed of American Mod-
ernist painters John Marin, Marsden Hartley,
Arthur Dove, Paul Strand, Georgia O’Keeffe, him-
self, and another artist (the X). During this period,
Stieglitz photographed at his summer home in
Lake George, New York, and focused on land-
scapes, particularly on trees in the park of his
residence and their evolution with the passing sea-
sons. Forced by ill health to abandon taking pic-
tures in 1937, and now considered the master and
elder figure in American photography, Stieglitz was
sought out by numerous younger photographers
seeking advise and opportunity, including Ansel
Adams. Yet during his last decade, he supported
only the work of Adams and nature photographer
Eliot Porter at An American Place. Stieglitz died in
New York City in 1946.
Significant collections of Stieglitz works can be
found at the Art Institute of Chicago; the National
Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the J. Paul Getty
Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York; and the Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
ThomasCyril
Seealso:An American Place; History of Photogra-
phy: Twentieth-Century Pioneers; Linked Ring;
Photo-Secession; Photo-Secessionists; Pictorialism;
Steichen, Edward; Strand, Paul; White, ClarenceBiography
Born 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey. Largely self-taught in
photography. Established a series of photography maga-
zines, including theAmerican Amateur Photographer
(1892–1996),Camera Notes(1897–1902), andCamera
Work(1902–1917), the latter the organ of the Photo-STIEGLITZ, ALFRED